This invention relates to a device for female transient urinary catheterisation.
Deviation from normal bladder function in a patient can involve problems of urinary retention, whereby the bladder is unable to evacuate urine. This dysfunction can result from a number of different causes, such as congenital defects in the nerve connections to the brain, nerve injuries resulting from trauma to the spinal cord, extensive abdominal surgical operations, infection and various diseases. If the sphincter muscle is too tight or the bladder muscles are too lax the patient may be able to urinate but may be unable to completely empty the bladder during urination.
Patients with urinary retention require catheterisation to enable the bladder to be satisfactorily emptied. In some cases a urine collection bag and an indwelling urethral catheter are used, the catheter forming a passageway from the bladder to the externally-carried collection bag which can regularly be emptied. This arrangement, however, is cumbersome and moreover leaves the patient at increased risk of infection, bacteria being able to grow and track along the catheter from the collection bag or around the catheter along the urethra.
The alternative and more acceptable solution is the insertion of a transient urethral catheter to allow the patient to void in the bathroom when appropriate or on a predetermined time schedule, such as every three to four hours. For women, this intermittent self-catheterisation can be very difficult to carry out, since the patient must be able to locate the urinary meatus accurately in order to insert the catheter into the urethra. With presently available devices the patient accomplishes this with the aid of a separate mirror held at an appropriate angle, inserting the catheter along the urethra (about 3-4 cm) until its end reaches the bladder. The mirror must be held by the patient, the self-catheterisation thus becoming a two-handed operation, or the mirror must be supported in front of the patient in some way in a position whereby the patient has the required view. Additionally the catheter can be difficult to grip and manipulate, being only a thin, flexible plastic tube with a special slippery surface to aid insertion.
Patent Application FR 2 555 903 describes an intermittent catheterisation device comprising a handle and a catheter tube, the handle being used to facilitate the introduction of the catheter tube into the urethra. Once the catheter tube is engaged with the handle their relative positions are fixed except for the limited flexibility permitted by the slight degree of pliancy of the catheter.